Constant-discharge pump



lll

Patented July 14, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENTIl OFFICE.

EDWARD T. ADAMS, 0F LOS ANGELES, CALIFORN'LA, ASSIGNOR TO JOSEPH G. EICH- ABDSOLL OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

CONSTANT-DISCHARGE PUMP.

ppn-cation .mea August 27, 1924. serial No. 734,407.

T o all 'whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, EDWARD T. ADAMS, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Los Angeles, in the county of Los Angeles and State of California, have invented new and useful Improvements in lConstant- Discharge Pumps, of which the folldwing is a specification. l

A The present invention relates to deep well pumps of the single acting bucket valve type and has for its principal object to provide a pump in which there is the tendency to discharge constantly.

lt will be understood in the consideration of this invention that in pumps of this character the actual work of lifting the oil-is accomplished only by the up stroke. The 'discharge is Vtherefore intermittent and the pump reciprocating means must overcome considerable inertia at the beginning of each stroke. considerable depth, some extending into the earth almost a mile, and for various practical reasons the fluid course leading from the lower parts of the well to the surface is of limited area of flow. Obviously,'if it is possible to distribute the discharge evenly between the up stroke and the down stroke of the plunger the strain on the reciprocating parts will be reduced and the frictional resistance through the longfluid course will be greatly reduced.

lt is therefore another object` of this in vention to adhere quite closely to common practice, to provide a pump construction of the utmost simplicity, and to still attain the above mentioned objects and result.

One of the greatest practical difficulties encountered in pumping oil wells is thatknown as sanding up. In other words, sand and silt carried by the oiltends to separate from the upflowing stream of oil and to settle back in the pump, eventually nding its way tothe suction valve, or standing valve as it is generally referred to.

lt is another object of this invention to reduce the tendency for sand to so accumulate by causing all matter which settles adjacent the pump to be picked up and to be positively injected into the heart of the moving oil stream, so that it may becarriell directly to the surface and out of the we Obviously, by so taking care of the settling and by providing a substantially conln many instances oil wells are of stant flow through the discharge tubing, rather than the usual intermittent flow, all sand lifted from below the pump -should eventually find its way to the surface.

n v1ew of the immediately foregoing it is st ill another object of this invention to provide a simple construction of pump which will Jointly provide for so disposing of the sand, while maintaining a substantially constantl upward discharge. Still otherobjects and advantages ofl my inventlon will appear hereinafter and will be which they appear.

l have illustrated by the accompanying drawings a preferred practical embodiment of my invention.

\ ln the said drawings: i n

,Figure l is a view in vertical section of the said embodiment;

Figure 2 is a view in section seen on a line 2%-,2 of Figure l;

Figure 3 is a view insection seen on line 3-3 of Figure l.v

ln carrying out my invention in the em bodiment illustrated there is provided an annular -wall or tube 6 which forms the usual pump casing and incloses a pump chamber or space B. Integral with the casing and at the lower end, there is provided a closure wvall 7. The closure wall is provided with a suction aperture A, encompassed by an annular valve seat 8. Upon this valve seat there rests a ball 9. The valve seat and ball are hereinafter referred to jointly as the standing valve. Within the pump chamber there is provided an inner annular coaxial wall 10 which is termed the standing tube. rlhis tube encompasses a central fluid course C which is a one-way communication with the space Af through the standing valve. The standing tube is well spaced inwardly from the pump casing wall and provides a better understood by virtue of the order in comparatively large annular space B which wall 13 is fitted around the outside .of the standing tube with a minimum working clearance therebetween.

It will be apparent now that the telescopic relation of the wall 13 to the standing tube is -similar to the relation of the ordinary plunger to its pumpcasing. In this embodiment, however, it will be apparent that any sand or silt gravitating downwardly from above the pump will be deflected by the plunger head and by wall 13, so'that it will settle in space B without finding its way directly to the fluid course C. It will be apparent hereinafter that the throat 17 of the plunger head will discharge a constant stream of fluid upwardly and as a consequence there will be little or no possibility of solid matter gravitating fromA the space B to the internal spacel D encompassed by wall 12.

#The plunger head is provided with the usual working valve-ball 18 and a valve seat 19. This ball and seat, is of necessity, within the inner wall 12. In conformance with ythis invention the inner wall 12 is provided with a plurality of unobstructed'ports, of -suitable area, leading `from the fluid course D directly into the anuularspace E. Said ports are located above the working valve, or in other words the working valve is located below the ports in conformance with the results desired to be obtained.

The operation of this pump will be understood from the following: As the plunger is recip'nocated constantly space C will alternately increase and decrease in volume. During the upward stroke of the plunger the working valve will be closed and the decrease in pressure created will cause the standing valveto open and oil will flow into space C as the plunger ascends. During this up stroke of the plunger, however, chamber E will be increasing in volume and it will draw a certain amount of oil from the Huid course D. During the up stroke all fluid which is above the working valve will, of course, be raised upwardly. It is to be understood, although not shown in the drawin s, that the pump casing continues upwar ly and` connects with a string of tubing which leads to the surface to provide Vby the pump reciprocating means (not shown) is not as great a's it would be if all the .oil had to be raised during the up stroke of the plunger. A

During the next down stroke space E will be decreased in volume and the fluid which has been drawn therein will be again displaced into the fluid course D. Now 'at the same time that the space E is decreasing in volume the working valve is moving downwardly through the oil now contained in space C, which oil of course cannot escape downwardly because of the closed standing valve. rTherefore there exists from the standing valve, and from the space C, a column of fluid reaching` tothe surface and filling the space E as well. Now it will be apparent that with the standing valve closed and the space E decreasing in volume a certain displacement must take place, and that displacement is equal to the reduction in effective volume of the space E.

This pump might well be termed a simple single acting bucket valve pump which has the peculiarity of retaining a portion of the fluid which passesl through its valves, and redelivering that oil to the Huid course at the time when a simple pump is ordinarily ineffective in raising fluid. It is probably advisable in practice to arrange the space E so that its edective maximum volume is about one-half of the normal displacement, so that one-half of the oil is raised during the up stroke and the other one-half raised during the down stroke. It will be understood that the sucker rods have a very considerable weight and this weight may be relied upon to force the plunger downward. Obviously I have provided a. pump in which the energy `consumed is quite well distributed between the up stroke and the down stroke, and in which pump the discharge is quite constant.

Up to this point the self-cleaning' features of this pump have not been considered. At all times the pressure in space B, and D as well as E is always the maximum hydrostatic pressure caused by the column of oil which reaches from the pump to the surface. The pressure in A and A is only that due to the normal fluid level in the well. The pressure at C of the fluid, in this form of pump, changes. During the up stroke of the plunger it will be'approximately that of A, while during the down stroke it will of course be that of D, B and E. y

I have stated heretofore that the ports should be of suitable area, while to be specic, it is best to have the ports slightly restricted so that during the up stroke of the plunger there will be a slight decrease in pressure in E due to throttling through the orts so that there is a slight induction from BQ to E.` This induction will cause a slight flow upward through the clearance from B to E'and sand or silt which has found its vay to B will be drawn with the oil into the annular space E. This sand, during the down stroke of the pump will be ejected through the ports into the stream of oil which is then moving upward through the throat 17.

It will be apparent that I have provided a pum in which settlings are diverted into a suita le space and subsequent-ly picked up and ejected again into the uprising oil stream, beforethe settlings can find their way to the standing valve, and,

Whereas I have shown and described aspecific embodiment of my invention I do ,Y not limit myself to any specific embodiment and may alter the construction and arrangement of parts, as I desire, or as occasion requires, w1thout enlarging the scope of my .invention and without departing from theI spirit thereof, within the appended claims.

I claim as my invention: 1. In a pump, a plunger embodying two co-axially arranged tubular members; one

v member of smaller diameter than the other,

a casing embodying two co-axially arranged tubular members; one member of smaller diameterthan the other; the plunger members coacting with the casing members to provide'a main pump chamber and an auxiliary pump chamber; the auxiliary pump chamber being separated from the main pump chamber by one of the aforesaid tubu` ried by the smaller tubular plunger member at apoint below said ports; whereby some of the fluid raised by said working valve during the up stroke of the plunger will be drawn into said auxiliary pumping chamber to be subsequently discharged therefrom on the following downstroke, of the said plunger.

2.. n a pump, a plunger embodying two coaxially arranged tubular members; one member of smaller diameter than the other, a casing embodying two co-axially arranged tubular members; one member of smaller diameter than the other; the plunger members coacting with the casing members to provide a main pump chamber and an auxiliary pump chamber; the auxiliary pump chamber being separated from the main pump chamber by one of the aforesaid tubular members, a standing valve, a port leading from said auxiliary pumping chamber to said main .pumping chamber through that member which separates said chambers; said port being devoid of non-return means and providing constant communication be-y tween said pumping chambers, and a working valve carried -by the smaller tubular plunger' member at a point below said ports;

whereby some of the fluid raised by said working valve during the up stroke of the plunger will be ldrawn into said auxiliary pumping chamber to be subsequently discharged therefrom on the' following down stroke of said plunger.

3. In a pump, a pump casing having an inlet opening at its lower end provided with a standing valve, a standing tube extending upwardly from said standing valve and spaced from said casing, a plunger provided with inner and `outer walls sliding respectively on the inside and outside of the standing tube so as to form a main pump chamber within said inner plunger wall and an auxiliary pump chamber between said inner and outer plunger Walls; said inner plunger wall being provided with a port establishing permanent l communication between said main pump chamber and said auxiliary pump chamber in both directions, and a working valve carried by said inner plunger Wall at a oint below said port; said innerplunger Wa l being open at the upper .end and devoid of non-return means above said port for the purpose set forth.

EDWARD rr. ADAMS. 

